On this day
1568: The death sentence was passed on an entire country when the Netherlands was condemned for heresy by the Spanish Inquisition.
1754: Richard Mead, English doctor and physician to George II, who promoted inoculation for smallpox, died.
1822: Francis Galton, founder of a new science called “eugenics”, was born in Birmingham. Among his ideas was the systematic creation of a superior race of human beings, later tried by Hitler. 1940: HMS Cossack rescued more than 300 British prisoners from the German naval auxiliary ship Altmark in Norwegian waters.
1959: Fidel Castro became prime minister of Cuba after overthrowing the regime of Fulgencio Batista.
1990: Royal Navy wives marched through Plymouth and Portsmouth to oppose a Ministry of Defence decision to allow Wrens to go to sea.
ON THIS DAY LAST YEAR: Sir Elton John said he was “deeply upset and sorry” for cutting short a concert in New Zealand after being diagnosed with walking pneumonia.